“People react to criticism in different ways, and my way is definitely to come out fighting.”

Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Being at a club that supported me meant a lot.

That was in the past – we’re in the future now.

I didn’t want to go there [America] at 34 years old and for people to say he’s only going for the money. It’s not what I’m going out there to do

I’ve always come back from adversity, and I’ve always had the mentality of proving people wrong.

You will go through tough times, it’s about getting through them.

With United, we’d all grown up together, we all wanted to win the biggest trophy in football. We did it togther.

[Meeting Mandela] was the highlight of my career; to meet such a great man and a strong man and such a passionate man about sport and life will always stay with me.

I’m not silly enough to think I’m going to change the whole culture … but I do have a belief that soccer can go to a different level.

To have a successful team, you have to have great players of course – but you have to have good personalities and good people as well.

I love little kids looking up to me, young players looking up to me, respecting me.

Everyone’s been so quick to say that I’m really thick or I haven’t got a brain. People will think whatever they want to think.

My secret is practice.

It’s is always nice to be respected as a footballer. I am going to go out and enjoy the game and if I can set one or two goals up then so be it – I would love to.

Some people think that I haven’t got the brains to be that clever.

Every situation has changed me as a person.

Why anyone, by dying, should thereby be declared beyond criticism, innocent of wrongdoing, suddenly filled with virtue and above reproach escapes me.

I play in New York, man. Criticism is part of the game. You take criticism as a challenge.

We criticize and separate ourselves from the process. We’ve got to jump right in there with both feet.

One of the principal motifs of Nietzsche’s work is that Kant had not carried out a true critique because he was not able to pose the problem of critique in terms of values.

I’m not a follower. I’m a leader. And anyone who speaks their mind is always criticised.

The sharpest criticism often goes hand in hand with the deepest idealism and love of country.

A life without criticism is not worth living.

Criticism is futile because it puts a person on the defensive and usually makes them strive to justify themselves. Criticism is dangerous, because it wounds a person’s precious pride, hurts their sense of importance, and arouses resentment.